Hopefully....

....if my friendly neighborhood film developer is right, I should have seven (count 'em, seven) freshly developed rolls in my grubby little hands tomorrow, all ready for scan and upload. I did something I usually hate doing, but did it anyway...I went out on Halloween.

I hate Halloween. No, I mean, I like candy and stuff, and I like my childhood memories of running around the neighborhood causing "mischief," but NYC on Halloween...eh...I'm over it. I've been over it for years. But this year I just happen to be dedicating myself to photography and this blog, so into the maw I went.

I even did something I like even less than going out on Halloween. I had a costume.

I decided to go as Arthur Fellig aka Weegee. I figured people might see the YashMat2EB (yes, I know Weegee didn't use a YashMat, but what am I going to do?" in its L bracket with flash mounted on top and figure it's a prop. I'm just realizing now that maybe I should have taken a picture of myself in the getup.

I wore a suit, grey striped shirt, straw fedora (I know, but I don't have a beaten up felt fedora) with a "PRESS" card in it, and a wide tie knotted halfway up my belly a la Ralph Kramden or William Frawley. Oh, yeah, and workboots too. That tied the whole outfit together. I was sans cigar, but hey, it's 2009 for crying out loud.

I have to admit the East Village wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I met a lot of nice people and (hopefully) took some decent photos. Oh yeah, about the photos...

I had just black and white 100iso stock. Remember some time ago when I got my flash that I really had to do some night test shots before Halloween? Or maybe I didn't say it, but I know I thought it.

Anyway, I never did the test shots. I never did a systematic test of experimenting with flash intensities, shutter speeds, and apertures — taking notes all along the way...So, hopefully whatever I did the other night worked out. I know what settings I was working at, but won't mention them here, not yet, since I'd hate to think that anybody who actually knows something about photography reads it and realizes that they're going to be a pile of shit. If they come out well, I can say, "of course, I knew all along it would work out!"

Okay, I'm going on too long here. So, for the first time on this blog, I'm posting a picture taken by someone other than me (I should probably do that more often). But of course, it is a photo of me, lest this self-indulgence get off track.

Here is a portrait of the artist ("artst?") in 1993, taken by Amos Poe.